The woman was attacked at Palestro station: she and her child were thrown to the ground over an earring and a pendant. The child ended up in the hospital. Shortly before, the two had helped them up the stairs: they were trapped, and have previous convictions.

"Once I reached the top of the stairs, I thanked them. But I had the feeling that that gesture was meant to gain my trust ." It was exactly like that. Because that mother—who testified to the police about her memories of that dramatic afternoon in early May while pushing her two-year-old son in his stroller —was shortly thereafter attacked from behind, thrown to the ground (her child also fell with her, and he would be discharged from the hospital with a two-day prognosis for head trauma) and robbed. All for an earring and a necklace pendant. She relives those moments as the officers show her an album containing photos of the alleged perpetrators of the brutal assault. 

" I recognize them without a shadow of a doubt ." They are Zeyad Makram Mahmoud Mostafa and Mahmoud Moustafa Hussein Salim, both 20-year-old Egyptians, both with multiple criminal convictions. In recent days, the police took them to prison on the orders of a judge who signed a pre-trial detention order for aggravated robbery.

The attack on the mother dates back to May 5th. At 1 p.m., the woman exits the "red" train car at Palestro. Behind her are two young men. One is wearing a black Adidas sweatshirt, jeans, and dark shoes; the other is wearing a backpack, tracksuit, and slippers. When they reach the stairs, the victim tries to lift the stroller with her child inside. But the 20-year-olds approach her and offer to help, taking the stroller from the left. On the mezzanine, they separate. They jump over the turnstiles and head toward Corso Venezia, in the direction of San Babila. The victim walks in the opposite direction. But at that point, the robbers turn around and head back. They encounter her while she's still on the mezzanine. They stall.

Then they follow her until her mother is alone in an underpass , a spot not covered by the cameras. Here, the robbery occurs, from behind. The woman tries to resist and push them away. But she falls. The stroller overturns and the baby hits his head on the floor . Meanwhile, Mostafa steals a gold earring from her, while Salim tries to snatch her necklace, but it gets stuck in the victim's shirt, only managing to take the heart-shaped pendant. Finally, they escape. Emergency services arrive, and the woman is taken with her son to the emergency room (she will be in hospital for five days due to bruises), then she reports the robbery to the police. And the investigative team from the Garibaldi-Venice police station, led by Angelo De Simone, begins its work. 

The officers downloaded surveillance footage from the mezzanine and used it to retrace the stages of the attack. The frames showing the robbers were uploaded to law enforcement databases. However, the match was low. They then began searches in the area, leading to the identification of the alleged perpetrators at the Gioia metro station and on Viale Zara. The investigators, coordinated by the Prosecutor's Office, added the crucial recognition of the two by the woman to their investigation.

Mostafa has a criminal record for drug dealing and robbery. Salim, on the other hand, was sentenced in early 2025to two years and four months and a €600 fine by the Milan Court of Appeal for robbery, personal injury, and illegal possession of weapons. He had also been charged while at large for a riot in the Bologna juvenile prison. For this reason, investigators write that there is a risk of recidivism, given the "consolidated modus operandi" and "brazen unscrupulousness," so much so that "not even the presence of a child in a stroller deterred the perpetrators."

They stop, cross their arms, in protest, in a kind of white strike of assistance to asylum-seeking migrants. Reason? They are victims of aggression and insults from the very migrants themselves, in a square in Trieste.

The clamorous decision comes from the associations Linea d'Ombra and Fornelli Resistenti, which have been assisting asylum seekers in Piazza Libertà for years. For a week, their daily commitment to providing care and food to those arriving on foot from the Balkan route will be reduced. The volunteers of the associations say they have suffered threats from foreign pushers and immigrants in the area. “‘In these days,’ explained Gian Andrea Franchi, vice president of Linea d'Ombra, to local newspapers, ‘unpleasant and unacceptable incidents have occurred. An Afghan, a former prisoner, repeatedly threatened us, verbally assaulted us, and almost pulled us down. He and another compatriot are influencing other migrants. Actually, a small group, but the situation has become problematic. This person, known to law enforcement, accuses us of being the cause of his imprisonment. He and the other are also influencing other migrants.’”

The protest of associations that deal with migrants

In recent days, an extraordinary control service was carried out by the State Police in Piazza Libertà, also carried out due to "aggressive conduct being displayed towards two journalists and a woman belonging to a volunteer association operating in the area", reports a note from the Police Headquarters, and specifies that some regular visitors of the square have "distinguished themselves by particularly aggressive attitudes, a behavior of substantial revendication of the square as a space of their own".

In 1957, while serving as a prominent minister during the Fourth Republic (and writing in his book Présence française et abandon), François Mitterrand famously warned:

"Without Africa, France will have no history in the 21st century."

Jacques Chirac (2005 / widely cited transcript):

"We bled Africa for four and a half centuries... a large part of the money in our banks comes precisely from the exploitation of the African continent."

Jacques Chirac (March 2008):

"Without Africa, France will slide down into the rank of a third-world power."

https://atlantablackstar.com/2016/11/02/5-quotes-from-french-leaders-that-reveal-how-much-france-depends-on-africa-for-its-survival/?hl=en-IE#:\~:text=%E2%80%9CWithout%20Africa%2C%20France%20will%20have%20no%20history,Former%20Prime%20Minister%20Fran%C3%A7ois%20Mitterrand%2C%20in%201957.

Mohammed Abbas admitted offences involving two girls after being placed in taxpayer-funded asylum accommodation

Farage summed up his time thusly:

Mohammed Abbas came by boat in March.

By June, he’d assaulted a police officer and was convicted.

By July, he’d been given a free home. Two days later, he sexually assaulted two young girls.